To Be A
by ZigzagoonCutie
Summary: A conference for the best of the best goes awry when Clair starts stereotyping. Now a challenge has been presented for leaders of all types-compile a list of what it takes to be a leader of your type.
1. Chapter 1

"And so I need more funds to rebuild my gym on Cinnabar Island," Blaine concluded, sitting back down in his assigned chair. The Gym Leaders and Elite Four members all glanced around the table, wondering if they should approve of the extra funding or not.

"I think we should give Blake his money to rebuild the gym on Cinnabun Island." Cheren facepalmed.

"Alder, that's not his—"

"Aye!" Flannery yelled in agreement. Clair shook her head at the noisy trainers. She was ready for this conference to be over. The five regions' leaders had gotten together four days ago, and it didn't look like they would be leaving anytime soon.

"We haven't opened it for agreement yet," the elder woman told the red-head, pushing her back down in her chair.

"Us Fire-type leaders have to stick together and help each other out, so I want him to get his gym rebuilt," Flannery said, hooking an arm around Blaine. "You Dragon-type leaders are always so bossy!" Clair looked offended.

"Well you Fire-type leaders are always so hot-headed and rash. We don't have a lot of money right now, and you want to spend it on rebuilding a gym, even though he already has a working gym on another island. More important things are present right now, such as rebuilding houses and Pokémon Centers in Vermilion City!" Everyone was silent after Clair's outburst.

"You're being racist!" Chili whined. Cress resisted the urge to bash his head in the nearest wall.

"Chili, it's not racist for her to say something about gym leaders who train a certain type. That would be…?" Cress tried to think of the correct word to use.

"Stereotyping," Cilan supplied helpfully. Cress nodded. Chili pondered for awhile and his brothers exchanged worried glances.

"Well, her stereotypes are wrong." Clair was intrigued by Chili's words, wondering what his views were on the Fire-type leader's stereotypes.

"Oh, then what do you think are the correct stereotypes?" Clair asked. Chili didn't have an answer right away.

"We'll discuss it," said Flint. Flannery nodded.

"We'll tell you guys what it really means to be a Fire-type leader." The four Fire-type leaders present got up and left the room. The others that remained sat in silence.

"So guys," Chili said to the other three with him: Blaine, Flannery, and Flint. "What does it mean to be a Fire-type leader?"

"You have to be cunning," Blaine supplied, "And good at coming up with riddles." Flint and Flannery shook their heads.

"He couldn't come up with a riddle to save his life!"

"She couldn't come up with a riddle to save her life!" Flint and Flannery said at the same time. Blaine chuckled at the youngsters.

"I guess you're right." All four of them put on their metaphorical thinking caps and thought hard.

"Well you have to like the heat!" Chili exclaimed. The other three nodded. That was the most obvious thing they had in common. "And, I bet you like spicy foods!" They thought about it, and then three nods told Chili his assumption was correct.

"I like winning, and I make a big deal of it when I do," Flint said.

"Me too!" exclaimed Flannery, so Chili added that to the list he was keeping on the notepad he normally used to write down orders at the café.

"You have to be awesome," Flannery said, and Chili wrote that down too, because he had to agree, all four of them were pretty awesome.

"My favorite color is red," Blaine said, and that's when they all realized, theirs was too. "My hair used to be red," he added after glancing around at the red-heads surrounding him.

"That can't be a coinky-dink!" Flint exclaimed. They all marveled at the wonders of how world worked.

"Okay, so now that we have done what you have to like to be a Fire-type trainer, we have to put down stuff about how you get there."

"Get a third-degree burn!" shouted Flannery.

"Have you actually done that?" asked Blaine in alarm.

"No," she admitted, "but it sounds badass." They all agreed to that, so Chili put it down.

"Own a Fire-type?" suggested Blaine unhelpfully.

"Well duh! If you didn't then you wouldn't be a Fire-type trainer, now would you?" Chili said sarcastically. Blaine sighed, the youth was right.

"You gotta like blowing shit up!" Flint screeched.

"Amen, brotha," Flannery said in a fake-black accent, high-fiving the man.

"No, you have to blow shit up before you become a Fire-type trainer, you can't just like it. You have to take action, and think on your feet." The way Chili described it, made training Fire-type Pokémon sound much more appealing.

"You have to be good and win in Monopoly," Flannery said.

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Blaine.

"It makes you awesome!" Flannery shouted, so Chili marked it down, thinking it _did_ make you awesome.

"What else makes us totally _AWESOME_!?" Flint was getting really pumped up.

"We all…" Flannery thought, trying to think up something totally cool, and something that was probably going to end up being a lie, "Sterilize others." She got three weird looks. "What?"

"We _sterilize_ others? How is that a good thing!?" Flannery shrugged, and Chili wrote it down.

"Let's get one more thing and we'll call it good." The others nodded.

"Before you can be a Fire-type leader, you have to," Flint pause to make it dramatic, "breathe fire." Flannery squealed at the coolness of the idea.

"Okay, we're good. And remember, if anyone asks, yes, you did do these things before." They all nodded in agreement and headed back into the meeting room where a bunch of bored looking people were sitting in silence.

"Hey, we're back," Flint announced, "And we've got our list, too!" Some faces brightened up and several people looked eager to hear this list. Chili headed to the front with his fellow Fire-type leaders.

"Okay guys. If you wanna be cool like us, you gotta love the heat; have red hair, like the color red, like winning, and like spicy food." Many people around the room agreed that that sounded like a Fire-type leader all right. "You also have to complete a few tasks first." Now everyone was awake and curious of this. No one knew you had to complete specific tasks.

"I'll take over," Flannery piped up, snatching the notebook from Chili. "You have to of had a third-degree burn, own a Fire-type," Some people giggled and muttered no shit. Flannery glared at them and told them to shut up, before continuing. "You have to blow stuff up, be good at Monopoly, sterilize people, and breathe fire." Immediately several people looked concerned, and they had every right to be.

"Are you serious?" Bugsy asked in child-like wonder. Flannery said 'yup' and the boy looked amazed.

"You sterilize people?" asked Misty. "Oh my god." Murmurs of worry spread around the table. Lance stood up.

"Thank you for that wonderful bout of information. I have learned one thing about Fire-type trainers."

"You only learned _one_ thing!?" Clair shouted in shock.

"Yes." Lance turned to address the trainers. "Have you really done all of those things?" They all nodded, and Lance smiled. "Then what I have learned is correct. You are all liars." This statement immediately caused an uproar.

"Oh hell naw biatch!" Flint shouted, ready to throw a punch. Volkner held him back.

"The only liars here are the Water-type trainers!" Flannery threw in. "Juan always says he's going to get stuff done and never does!" The room got silent. A new challenge had just been created.


	2. Chapter 2

The challenge had been made. Now, could the Water-type trainers rise up and overcome it?

"I always have good reasons why I do not do what I say. Being a Gym Leader, as popular as I am, is hard." Flannery rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, what was your excuse last time? Lemme think. Oh, right. 'I had to make dinner for Tate and Liza,' isn't that what you said. I called up Tate and Liza, and guess what? They were eating dinner." Juan looked a little surprised by her follow-up. He had always expected that people would drop the matter when they thought someone was busy.

"Well," Misty said, "I guess it's our turn." The other leaders turned to her. "We'll make our list, and you can see for yourselves that we are honest people." Around the table, many agreed, so five Water-type Gym Leaders got up and headed out.

"One, two, three, four… five?" Wallace was confused; he was pretty sure there were six Water-type trainers.

"Where's Marlon?" Cress asked. They looked around and found he wasn't present. Wake headed back in and saw Marlon asleep in his chair. He was woken up by a rough shove and filled in on what they were doing.

"Okay, now we can start," Wallace said, taking the role of leader from Misty. The latter huffed.

"Yes, I'll make the list. She started to pull out a piece of paper, but Cress stopped her, gesturing to the notebook in his hand.

"Allow me." Misty grumbled, upset she wasn't getting to do anything. This made her determined to try and think of the most things to put on their list.

"Well there's our first trait, determined," Wake observed with a hearty laugh. Misty flushed lightly and gave another huff.

"Okay, we, like water, like to go with the flow." They all agreed. It was the first thing that came to mind when you thought of a Water-type trainer.

"We all like swimmin' right?" Marlon asked. Juan looked at Wallace and he shrugged. A little white-lie wouldn't hurt. "And the color blue!" Misty almost spoke up and said that she preferred orange, but then remembered that it would make the list smaller. They needed a nice hearty list.

"Well to name a few things," Wallace started, "I like fashion, seashells, long walks on the beach, classical music, fake eyelashes, cute crocheted animals, pink pens, the second hand of a clock, old history books, painted ceilings, and young boys with red eyes." Everyone was appalled by his list, but Cress was madly scribbling it down, for he too liked several of those things. Juan looked like he was going to say something about that last one, but thought better of it and kept his mouth shut.

"Now since that is done," Wake said, "we need to think of qualifications, like making your own theme song." None of them had done that except Wake, but they could probably make something up on spot if they needed to.

"I know a few," Misty said, knowing it was her time to add to the list, "Swimming with Sharpedos, catching Goldeen with your bare hands, and skinny dipping." Everyone present had done everything on that list surprisingly, so it was written down by Cress.

"You have to stand under a waterfall," Wake said. Even though no one else had done that, it was written down.

"Doesn't Chuck do that?" asked Misty. Wake shrugged, he didn't know what Chuck did in his spare time; he didn't stalk people.

"You have to be able to jump outta the water like a Mantine, 'k?" Marlon said. They all didn't think that was okay, because that was too ambitious for many people, but Cress knew Marlon could do it, so if they were asked to demonstrate, they would be able to.

"You have to have gills," Juan said boldly.

"Do you really have gills?" Misty exclaimed, excited. She had always hoped it would be possible for humans to have gills, because if it were possible, she would be able to be a real mermaid. And then her sex appeal would sky rocket, and Red would be all hers.

"No," Juan said, not seeming to care he had just told a blatant lie. He then shrugged, "No one will be able to tell if we have gills or not, we can tell them they are at our crotch." Misty realized Flannery was right; Juan was a total liar.

"At least seventy percent of your body has to be made of water," Wallace said matter-of-factly. "My doctor told me so." Everyone in the room was stunned by this fact. Seventy percent sounded like a lot.

"Wait…" Cress said, glancing up from his mad scribbling, "Everybody's bodies are made of at least seventy percent of water." The disheartened looks made him almost wish he had never said anything.

"That's okay, we'll say ninety percent," said Juan, picking up the notebook and rewriting the previous statement. That's when Wake realized how right Flannery was.

"I say our list is good," Wallace said before Juan could make up any more lies. "Let's go present it!" The gaggle excitedly hurried inside to give their speech.

"We're back~!" Juan said in a singsong voice. Marlon was surprised he didn't try to lie to everyone and tell them they weren't really there. Flannery was totally right about that guy!

"Oh good, let's hear it," Clair said. For some odd reason, this really fascinated her. Her cousin, Lance, did not share her enthusiasm, however.

Cress cleared his throat. "First, we have the traits we share. We all are determined, go with the flow, like swimming, the color blue, fashion, seashells, long walks on the beach, classical music, fake eyelashes, cute crocheted animals, pink pens, the second hand of a clock, old history books, painted ceilings." Cress paused to take a breath and noticed the smaller writing. It looked like he forgot something. "And young boys with red eyes." He blushed after realizing what he just said, and Chili beamed proudly at him.

"I always knew you liked me better, bro!" Chili exclaimed. Cress blushed harder. Norman looked a little more than angry.

"Would you like to repeat that last one?" Norman asked in a threatening tone. He wasn't even looking at Cress—he was glaring at Wallace. Cress paled. He decided to keep his mouth shut and pass the list to Misty. The girl beamed. She was happy she got to take control, and was oblivious to Norman cracking his fingers. Juan moved closer to Norman and whispered in his ear that Wake had taken a liking to Ruby, Norman's son. Cress then realized what a liar Juan was.

"Before you continue, do you all really like a red-eyed boy?" Bertha asked. The spouted names of the people they knew had red-eyes, and Bertha seemed satisfied. She gestured for them to continue.

"All right," Misty said, once again oblivious to her surroundings. Norman had forcibly drug Wake out of the room for a little chitchat. "To be a Water-type leader, you have to write a theme song, swim with Sharpedos, catch Goldeen barehanded, go skinny dipping, stand under a waterfall, jump like Mantine, have gills, and ninety percent of your body has to be made of water."

"Okay, half that list was utter bullshit," Lance stated. Misty looked alarmed. How could he see through their lies?

"What part?" Juan challenged. Lance looked at Flannery. Maybe she was right about the Water-type leaders being more of liars than the Fire-type ones.

"I want to see your gills. Oh and, if ninety percent of your body was water, then you wouldn't have some of your major organs."

"We are missing some organs—"

"Which ones?"

"Our livers, appendixes, gall bladders, spleens, kidneys, pancreas, large intestines, our right apical lobes of our lungs, our aortas, and a few more." It was at that point when everyone in the room realized just how bad of a liar Juan was.

"You can't live with—"

"Yes you can, we don't really need most of our digestive system—we use diffusion to move nutrients and wastes, and we don't need our lungs because we have gills."

"Speaking of gills, let me see yours." Juan nodded.

"Okay, I just have to take off my pants."

"Eww!" screeched Phoebe. "Please no!" Lance agreed with her on that.

"Don't seriously," Lance said. Clair on the other hand really wanted to see his gills. If people could have gills, could they have horns, tails, or even trunks? "Okay guys, I guess our little contest is over, we know Water-type leaders lie more than Fire-type leaders." Clair was disappointed her cousin wanted to end the contest. She suddenly spoke up.

"Well I just wanted to say, Rock-type leaders don't have fun. They are boring and serious." As Brock bristled, she knew she had started another round. Lance gave her a look that read 'are-you-kidding-me?' and Clair smiled at him. It was time to sit back and watch the show.


End file.
